On March 27th Kevin Smith, director of such films as Clerks, Dogma, Cop Out and more, will be giving one of his talks in Kansas City.  You can’t exactly call them “lectures” as they are more just him telling stories about the more insane things that happen in his life.  Well, apparently since he will be in the “neighborhood”, Fred Phelps and his band of loons will be making an appearance at the show … for a whole 45-minutes.

(apologies for the language it contains)

Mr. Smith, never being one to shy away from controversy, has spent most of the day taunting them via his Twitter account.  Or more specifically he has been exchanging barbs with Megan Phelps-Roper, a member of the church who sounds like she is related, but I can’t find the connection on Fred Phelps Wikipedia page.

As I’ve said before when this “church” tried to say that Santa was going to take you to Hell, and they were going off to protest a Lady Gaga concert, I just simply don’t get these people.  Do they honestly crave attention this much?  They know that people view them as idiots, and yet they appear to revel in this fact.  Reading Ms. Phelps-Roper’s Twitter stream, you can tell she is ecstatic that Mr. Smith is mocking her.

If you are a devout follower of the Bible it does say you should spread the word of the Lord, but does it have a passage I missed that said something about “act completely insane while doing it, and make sure to be as offensive as possible”?  I mean, I’ve spent my time in church, I’ve read the Bible, somehow I think I missed that passage.

I suppose to each their own, but I can think of much better things to do with my time than to be a national laughing stock that most people consider to be mentally unstable.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Westboro Baptist Church Plans To Protest Kevin Smith

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Steven and I are joined tonight by our long-lost hosting buddy Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins tonight as he discusses how his SXSWi experience differed greatly from Jolie O’Dell’s, and why he wonders what she was really up to during the show.

We also turn briefly to this constantly trumped up story about Gowalla and Foursquare being locked in a cage match.  Mark presents some really interesting real life case studies of why all of this location stuff is a bunch of hot air.

A brief mention of Mark’s fanboy moment upon meeting Leo Laporte … can’t say as I blame him.

Listen in and enjoy the show!

(Links by Steven for some of the stories we discuss in this episode)

Why SXSW Sucks – Jolie O’Dell
Why SxSW Doesn’t Suck – SiliconANGLE

Press the big green button to listen in!

Post from: SeanPAune.com

The Braindead Techcast Ep. 26: school’s us on the SXSWi that Jolie O’Dell missed

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Since Conan O’Brien left The Tonight Show, his future has been looking uncertain.  There has been no word on him getting a new talk show, and the only bright spot for him seemed to be his upcoming stage tour that was announced last week.

Well things have definitely started to swirl around the goofy late night show host.  It seems the rumors that the Fox network was interested in him are proving to be true.  According to the Los Angeles Times, top Fox executives, including network owner Rupert Murdoch, are open to bringing the gunny man to their late night time slot.  There are some hurdles still, such as Mr. O’Brien was working with a $90 million a year budget at NBC, but Fox would like to bring it in under $60 million a year.

There is also some question about where it would film, although NBC is willing to lease his just vacated stage to him, supposedly some of his staff have been scouting other sound stages over the past two weeks.

Apparently Fox would like to wrap this up prior to May 17th when the network will announce its new schedule, but the talks could still fall apart due to the early stages they are in.

As for “The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour”, apparently there is some talk of it being turned in to a concert film.  Media Rights Capital has apparently already come forward to talk about financing it, and it is unclear if film crews would follow the entire 30-city tour, or if it would just be a film of one performance.

It looks like leaving NBC may turn out to be one of the best things Conan has ever done in his career.  Reduced money or not, it sure has built him an even larger legion of fans.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Possible Fox Deal And A Movie Could Brighten Conan O’Brien’s Day

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Steven and I take a look at SXSWi (South By Southwest Interactive) tonight, a technology conference neither of us attended, but yet we feel qualified to comment on … because that’s how we roll.

What we both long for is a tech conference where bloggers can go and exchange ideas without everyone and their brother coming to market to us.  There needs to be a place for us to exchange ideas without having swag thrown at us constantly as companies try to get their startups covered or want to get a syndication deal.  Oh well, maybe some day.

Listen in and enjoy the show!

(Links by Steven for some of the stories we discuss in this episode)

Why SXSW Sucks – Jodie O’Dell
Chris Brogan at SXSW – 1938Media
The Great Privacy Con of Social Media and Web 2.0 – The Inquisitr

Press the big green button to listen in!

Post from: SeanPAune.com

The Braindead Techcast Ep. 25: SXSW: Bring on the sponsorships never mind the sharing & learning

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In July of last year, Ms. Andrews, a well-known sports reporter for the ESPN network, was stalked and videotaped in secret via peepholes in hotel rooms while she changed clothes.  Known as the Erin Andrews Peephole Video Controversy, the stalker was finally revealed to be a 48-year-old man named Michael David Barrett, a father of two, this past October.

The details that followed were disturbing as it was revealed the Chicago-area insurance executive had followed Ms. Andrews to multiple locations, recording multiple instances of her changing clothes in the privacy of her hotel room via peepholes he had made.  During the course of the investigation, it was also revealed that Mr. Barrett may have also victimized as many as 16 other women over the course of his travels.

Mr. Barrett’s plea bargain had been for 27 months in federal prison, but after the hearing yesterday, where Ms. Andrews addressed him by saying, “You violated me and you violated all women. You are a sexual predator, a sexual deviant and they should lock you up,” the judge exercised his option to extend the sentence, and moved it up to 30 months.  Mr. Barrett tearfully said he hoped Ms. Andrews could someday forgive him, but talking to the press outside the courthouse after the session, she said that would never be possible.

Ms. Andrews will be be appearing on the new season of Dancing With The Stars which begins airing next week, she said during a Good Morning America interview this morning that she considers it part of her healing process.

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Erin Andrews Stalker Sentenced To 30 Months In Prison

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Mondays mean one thing around The Braindead Techcast office … MORONIC MONDAYS!

Yes ladies & gents, it’s Monday, and that’s when Steven and I take a look back at the past week and point out the extra stupid stories we see through out a week.  And, as always, there were a bunch.

We also name the Baindead Award Winner of the week.  It’s a service … represented by a bird … any guesses yet?

Listen in and enjoy the show!

(Links by Steven for some of the stories we discuss in this episode)

Any of the hundreds of stories about SXSW and especially when it came to the so-called location war
Andreessen’s Advice To Old Media: “Burn The Boats” – TechCrunch
Eighty percent of corporate bloggers stop after 5 posts max – VentureBeat
Sex.com domain to be auctioned off – Globe and Mail
iPhone Addiction Is for Real, Says Stanford Study – New York Magazine
Harry Smith Undergoes Live Colonoscopy with Encouragement from Katie Couric – mediabistro

Press the big green button to listen in!

Post from: SeanPAune.com

The Braindead Techcast Ep. 24: It’s Moronic Monday with our own Moronic General and his pretend war

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Back in June of 2009 we added Franklin as our fourth and final dog.  They were all cocker spaniels, we were happy and then … a friend came into a situation where she had to move to an apartment that doesn’t allow pets.

… um … er … that picture to the right is my new dog, Dexter.

He is six-months-old, a mix of Chihuahua, Pappion and Poodle.  This is a permanent move and he’s been here for five days now, and all seems to be going well.  He and Franklin our only about four months apart in age, so they are pretty much in a constant tug-o-war over toys.

At eight pounds he is our smallest dog and is quickly learning to get out of the way of the thundering herd of cocker spaniels as they plow through the house.

Yes, I am clearly insane, but it was either my house or the pound, so here he is.

Five dogs and one cat … I swear there will be no more!  (I hope …)

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Introducing Dexter

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TechFlash is reporting that Classmates.com will pay either $3 or give a $2 credit for renewals to up to 3.16 residents of the United States who were mislead by e-mails that indicated they needed to sign up for a Gold membership to see what old friends were trying to contact them on the site.  After paying for the membership they would discover that in fact no one had tried contacting them.  The settlement covers anyone who signed up with the site as far back as Oct. 30, 2004.

As part of the agreement (PDF link), Classmates has not admitted any wrong doing.

Seeing as I have received many of these e-mails over the years, I have to agree they are exceedingly misleading in their wording.  While I was unaware of the class action suit having even been filed, I will certainly be following the process to filing my claim.  It may only be $3, but I will gladly take any money from this company that I can get considering my argument with them last summer.

Combined with their declining visitors and membership, I’m amused by watching this site fall.  I’m not one for reveling in the decline of a business, but after the way I saw how they treated customers, and the fact that they hold on to every penny for dear life, good riddance to them.

The sad thing is that even though 3.16 million people are eligible for this pay out, only a fraction of them will ever file for the money they have been rewarded.  They’ll feel it isn’t worth the effort, or they won’t ever even know about it.  I would love to see all of them file for it, but I’m not exactly going to hold my breath for that to happen.

Hmm, two posts down and I still don’t feel like the company has gotten their $59 worth of advertising for the money they refused to refund to me.  Don’t worry  Classmates, I’ll make sure you get your whole value!

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Classmates To Pay Up To $9.5 Million To Disgruntled Members

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FunJug.com

• A Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever
• Webcam Girl
• If You Turn Your Head, I Win [Chatroulette]
• WVLT Reporter Gordon Boyd Loses It
• Keyboard Cat REINCARNATED!
• Google Wave Cyber Sex
• The Great Office War

Photo.BLORGE.com

• Pentax 645D officially announced

RememberingChristmas.com

• Christmas Lights Gone Wild

SeanPAune.com

• Oscar Winners 2010
• New Iron Man 2 Trailer
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 20: Moronic Monday where life is more than lumps and craters
• Tron Legacy Trailer
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 21: Blogging for pennies. Ya that’ll work.
• Andy Richter Talks Tonight Show Mess On Regis & Kelly
• Conan O’Brien Officially Announces Stage Tour
• High School Cancels Prom Over Lesbian Date Request
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 22: Location, location, location … eh who cares
• Scattercast Episode 86: Prom Isn’t All That Great Anyway
• Five Years Of Blogging
• The Braindead Techcast Ep. 23: Techmeme Fridays and no obscene bonuses for us
• First Video From Predators Movie

StarterTech.com

• Wi-Fi Locating Apps Banned From The iPhone App Store
• Apple’s First iPad Commercial Says It All
• 3D Televisions Hitting Store Shelves In The USA This Week
• Google Launches Google Apps Marketplace
• New Hard Drives Coming Out In 2011 May Not Play Well With Windows XP
• Starbucks And Foursquare Team Up For A New Promotion
• Marvel Comics Branded HDTVs Invade Your Living Room

Tech.BLORGE.com

• Microsoft sends flowers to Internet Explorer 6 funeral
• Online shopping sees healthy growth through 2014
• Apple cracking down on ‘cookie cutter’ iPhone apps
• Amazon and Colorado go to war over new sales tax law
• Vodafone HTC Magic found to be carrying virus out of the box
• Netflix sued over Warner Brothers new release delay
• ReTweet.com sells for $250,000
• Rumor: iPhone OS 4.0 to support multitasking
• JooJoo tablet gets a facelift before first shipments
• Firefox to get account management capabilities
• Apple begins taking iPad pre-orders, limits quantities
• Rumor: Google prepping for its final pullout of China

TechnoBuffalo.com

• Viacom Gets Hypocritical With Threat To Sue Bloggers
• Here We Go Again: The Desktop Is A Dying Format … Wrong
• First iPad Commercial Makes Its Debut At The Oscars
• Apple Continues To Purge The App Store
• Why Is Chrome The Only Browser Showing Growth?
• What Will Google Make Next?
• How Soon Is Too Soon For A Game To Have DLC?
• What Went Wrong With The Nintendo 64?
• Tech in Film: Tron Legacy
• 3D Televisions? How About 3D Computer Monitors?
• A Look Back At The First iPod Commercial
• Sony Gets In The Social Media Camera Game
• Will The Dell Mini 5 Be Dead Upon Arrival?
• Why IE6 Took So Long To Die
• Playstation Move: Just Catch-up, Or Something Truly Unique?

Windows.BLORGE.com

• Top 40 best free Windows 7 Games

Post from: SeanPAune.com

Sean P. Aune’s Articles For The Week Of March 7th

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The Predator franchise had two good movies (throw rocks if you must, but I did actually enjoy the second film), then it hit the skids with two just absolutely awful Aliens Vs. Predator films.  The concept was a great one, but the scripts were just awful.

Now, Robert Rodriguez, the director of such films as Desperado, Sin City, Planet Terror and many more, has come on board with a totally new film called Predators.  The film doesn’t erase all of the other films from existence, it just doesn’t acknowledge them, and there really is no need to.  The basic concepts are there, so there is really no reason for those other films to have to be talked about.

The concept this time around appears to be that the Predators have been kidnapping dangerous individuals from Earth and taking them to a game preserve planet for hunts.  The cast is a fascinating one with people such as Topher Grace (That 70’s Show), Adrien Brody (Oscar winner for The Pianist), Laurence Fishburne (Matrix series, CSI) and several more.

The film is due for release July 9th, and while the hunter/prey concept is a fairly basic one, the talent involved in this one gives me a lot of hope for this film to be one of the highlights of this summer movie season.

Enjoy your first look and … is that a Predator pet?!?

Post from: SeanPAune.com

First Video From Predators Movie

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